Microsoft to stop supporting Office 2003 alongside Windows XP in 2014

It is not just Windows XP which is about to witness its name cut off from the officially supported list of products, but the extended support for Microsoft Office 2003 is also ending on April 8, 2014.

With a user base over 35 per cent (as of July this year), Windows XP is the second most popular operating system and many users are already enraged by the fact the Microsoft is no longer going to support the operating system. If this wasn’t enough, Microsoft’s support lifecycle webpage now lists the last day of official support for Office 2003.

Office 2003 is one of the most popular office productivity suites that Microsoft dished out and the reason behind its success was not only that it was fully compatible with Windows XP, but also because of the functionality it offered and the maturity of the product – it offered almost all features which were expected of a productivity solution.

But, as with all Microsoft products, Office 2003 was also riddled with lots of security bugs and vulnerabilities which needed regular patch cycles. With official support ending on April 8, 2014 organizations and users still using the office productivity suite would need to think on a migration plan alongside Windows XP.

There have been reports earlier indicating that hackers are stockpiling on Windows XP zero-days and they will be utilizing those to craft viruses, Trojans and other malware. This could be a case for Office 2003 as well once the support life-cycle ends.